Iran posted a year high of 47,989 megawatts in electricity consumption on Tuesday, as the country prepares for higher electricity demand in a sweltering summer.
The rise in demand comes as consumption in the industrial sector has declined by an average of 800 MW compared to April, Mehr News Agency reported.
According to the Iran Grid Management Company, power plants could sustain an additional load of 1,700-2,000 MW during Tuesday’s peak hours.
The need to power more cooling systems is the main driver of the upward trend in power usage during summer days.
Iran accounted for about 1,364 MW of the total 1,746 MW of swapped electricity with the neighboring countries, indicating Iran’s positive trade balance in the electricity sector.
However, Iranian industries registered a drop of 800 MW in their power consumption on Tuesday, which amounted to 3,581 MW.
Power consumption nationwide peaked at 47,000 MW last year (ended March 19). According to officials, Iran’s power grid had the capacity to sustain a peak usage of 50,000 MW last year without suffering outages. The threshold has increased to 54,000 MW this year.
Experts believe that for every single degree rise in temperature in summer days, the country’s power consumption increases by 400 MW.
